Review by Choice Review
Presidio is a sequel to Early's The Colonial Architecture of Mexico (1994). Spanish colonial buildings in the US certainly warrant a good, new study, and for libraries wanting to fill the gap, Early's book is worth putting on the shelf, but it is neither a synthesis of the subject nor the sort of resource that provides both comprehensive information and analysis of all the important extant buildings. For example, of the five San Antonio missions, two of them, San Francisco de la Espada and San Juan Capistrano, are only mentioned, not discussed or illustrated. The book, whose chapters proceed state by state--Florida, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, and California, in that order--undertakes as its first obligation to provide a chronicle of the Spanish settlements, rather than to give primary attention to the architecture itself. Although there are endnotes and a bibliography, also organized by states, it often takes effort to determine the specific sources of information and quotations. There are some 154 illustrations of varying quality and usefulness, insufficient to represent the subject adequately. The book will be most useful for its historical information and to those who have other material available on the specific buildings. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through faculty. C. W. Talbot Trinity University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
